Derry Matthews Outpoints Luis In Razor Thin Win
A tremendous battle of pressure fighter vs rangy boxer. It really could have went either way.
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The WBA interim lightweight championship fight between Liverpool’s Derry Matthews and Canada’s Tony Luis proved to be a real cracker tonight.
It was Matthews who got the unanimous decision in the end, but little known Luis proved to be a relentless fighter from start to finish and surely won a hell of a lot of fans.
He could have had a case to felt a little hard done by I thought. I had Luis the winner by a point, but in truth it was one of those fights that could have went either way.
Right from the get go Luis laid the gauntlet down as he backed Matthews up with constant pressure behind a stiff jab. He had Matthews on the ropes at many times in the fight and threw some very hurtful body shots and nice left hooks at times.
It was a fight where you had the pressure of Luis against the more quality and accurate work of Matthews. It was a case of what you preferred, or what style you thought did enough to counter act the other in some very hard to score rounds.
The Derry Matthews straight right hand landed cleanly a number of times on the Canadian who soaked them up without blinking an eye. Matthews also threw some excellent uppercuts off the back foot often from on the ropes.
The 8th round proved to be the most controversial one, where both men had points deducted, Luis for use of the elbow and Matthews for persistent holding. The fight did get rather scrappy at times and both men lived up to their rough and ready reputations.
In the 11th round Luis looked like he was finally slowing down but gave a massive effort again in the last round, which just edged the fight for him in my view.
Alas, it wasn’t meant to be for the Canadian but his stocks will have rose considerably after this. Matthews moves on to big things and now holds the interim WBA lightweight championship of the world.
A big fight with Richard Abril will inevitably be in the pipe lines for the Liverpudlian later this year one would think.
The final judges scorecards read 114-112, 114-112 and 115-112 all in favour of Matthews.
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